Stock Tip

Sept 25
Dinner ashore tonight at "Red" a small restaurant at the marina owned by a woman from Russia, serving British food. The decor was done in black and white pics of Marilyn Monroe and sailboats. Each with a slash of red highlight somewhere about. The menu was limited...Fish and Chips (of course), Hamburgers and Chip, and Baggers and Mash.... As advertised, not a typo. Fortunately, we had Malcolm from Francisca, the yacht tied up behind us, to advise what a Banger was but admitted he was also clueless about Baggers. Regardless of how they are spelled, they will not be on my list of must have foods.

Sept 26
The sail to Brighton was less than fun with sustained wind in the high 20s and gusts to 35. The dinghy tried to make her great escape during all of the commotion..... Like we wouldn't notice. King was able to lash her back aboard but boat pole #3 was sacrificed during the drama. If anyone wants to invest in stock you might want to look at boat pole manufacturing companies. I have a feeling we will be leaving a trail behind us.

Sept 27
I know everyone will be relieved to hear we found two more jumbo bags of TP. I think we are good till Christmas! Obviously, it was something I didn't want to take a chance of running out of.

Successfully managed going through our first lock in Eastbourne. Four boats were crammed in there at once. We were the fattest, of course. Only a couple of feet clearance on each side as we entered. Yikes. Once inside, the marina water was like glass. No rock and roll. I think I like this locking business.

August 29
We left the marina this morning at 8 a.m. for a glorious sail to Dover. The sky was a beautiful bright blue with cotton ball clouds all day. While the wind only blew 8 -12 knots we had the current with us so averaged 7 knots, with a few spikes past 9, on the 45 mile passage. The guides books had me a bit wound up with all of their warning about staying out of the way of multiple ferries and cargo ships "some moving at 45 knots" as they zip in and out of the port. You must request permission to enter the harbour from a very busy Harbour Control. Fortunately, our entry was a cake walk with only two other sail boats breezing in along with us. After tying up to the dock, we checked in at the marina office and collected our THIRD boat pole that King had called ahead to have delivered.

So, you may be thinking is she gonna say anything about the White Cliffs? Nope. They appear to be at their finest on the other side of the port so you will just have to wait. I have included a pic of the White Cliffs near Brighton. They were quite stunning.

Off to Dover Castle.

Brighton's White Cliffs were spectacular

White Cliffs of Brighton

Eastbourne Marina

Entering Brighten Marina

Entering Dover

Dover - heading to the small boat Marina

How many rolls of TP to London?

Friday Sept 21

Its official. Ostinato is down to its final bag of TP that was packed aboard in Shell Point. Bets are being placed on if we will reach London before we reach cardboard on the last roll. I have faith ....but just in case, I think a small reprovisioning may be in order.

Speaking of provisioning, we did pretty good with our original stores. We ate our last Sam's steak last week. It had stowed away in the recesses of the freezer. The vacuum sealer worked really well keeping frozen foods and flours, nuts, etc. while we have purchased some canned vegetables, we still have canned food galore that was part of the original stores. However, it is beginning to get down to the canned fruit, tuna and chicken along with the odd can of cranberry sauce and green chilies. What did we run out of? Hotdogs, one of Kings favorite lunches. Found them in jars in Horta....but something about that is disturbing. It was not a successful substitution. Pretzels. Apparently not a favorite in Ireland or the UK. I got desperate and tried making them. Not an activity I plan to ever repeat. Even Ed wouldn't eat them. English muffins....I think they must be like French fries...speaking of french fries, AKA chips, King is still on his quest to find the best Fish & Chips. For our friends in Ireland, Baltimore Wharf is still the winner to date. I might add that I have dropped out of the tasting panel due to lack of enthusiasm over the main course.

The planning for the last push to arrive in London, give or take, October 1, is complete. Stops will include Brighton, Sovereign, Dover, Ramsgate, River Midway (Thames), and finally, St Katharine's Marina in London, our home until next Spring. The plan is to move daily beginning early in the week. In the mean time, we are sitting out some poor weather using FREE dockage coupons picked up at the boat show.

Ostinato is tied up today at the Royal Clarence Marina dock in Gosport (across the bay from Portsmouth) after 2 days in Cowes. Cowes is a big small boat racing center. No racing for us, we took a more leisure approach and hopped a bus to visit Queen Victoria's stunning summer home. We should all live like that. During our first night in Cowes not one but both heaters decided to go on the fritz. I dove under Ed's birth and pulled out the electric blanket for us, found my long underwear and crawled under the flannel sheets. King, my hero, spent the next morning fixing it up good as new. Tonight is expected to be in the 40s! That's fahrenheit! We are warm and toasty but the water pump has now decided to take its turn seeking King's attention. Oh my.

Portsmouth Harbour

The Royal Clarence Marina is home to the world racing fleet. We are talking BIG boat racing. Directly across from us are boats representing Australia, Finland and London. New York is just a dock over. For £7000 you too can crew one leg of the race next year. On our way into Portsmouth we slid between 4 of these big girls going out for a race.

Sat Sept 22

HMS Victory

Following the repair of the water pump we took the ferry from Gosport to Plymouth to see HMS Victory. Wow. She was pretty cool. It was so top heavy, I cannot imagine how it sailed with the amount of ballast needed to keep it upright. We were allowed to wander the majority of this amazing ship including Nelson's chambers. The Plymouth water front is a upscale shopping center. The best was the kids entertainment including the balls that let you walk on water....kinda. See pic below.

Sun Sept 23
Rainy day with lots of wind. We are staying put. The Internet access is down so maybe a good day to make fudge and read



I really wanted to try this....children only



Captain's quarters on the HMS Victory

Around the World Clipper Race boats home base at Gosport

Victory cannons

Riverfront park at Plymouth

HMS Victory

 

Nelson was rocked to sleep

T

The Oldest Pub

September 10
Dartmouth
We have finally given up on seeing the sun anytime soon so we took the dingy canvas off today. At this point all it was accomplishing was making our butts wet.



Dartmouth Harbour pontoon

Arrived yesterday and at the direction of the Harbour Master had our first pontoon experience. No water, no power, and you are expected to raft up 2 deep should the need for space occur. To add insult to injury, to get access to land you must either call a water taxi or drop in the dinghy. For these lux accommodations they charge £19. The first trip into town was by water taxi (yes Kim and Barbara, at this rate your inheritance will be long gone before we get out of Great Britain). Upon return the water taxi driver wanted to make sure we knew there was another American boat in the harbor so he zipped us by for a look. It was Alchemy. A nice surprise as we did not expect to see them again until London. Later joined them and their pontoon neighbors at a local pub for some music and drinks. The pub was built in the 1300's. We're talking old. But it wasn't a pub then....the oldest pub recognition goes to the Seven Stars. It didn't show up until the 1800s. I'm feeling that's still pretty old. Back at the boat, every few hours a steam train passes by the anchorage taking tourists to Agatha Christy's holiday home. It startles me every time I hear that damn whistle.

Sept 11
Next stop Weymouth where the Olympics sailing competitions were held. It's a beautiful bay and the anchorage is right in the middle of the city. Ostinato was surrounded by tall ships at the city quay. The city marina gets the prize to date for the nicest showers.

Sept 15
Arrived in Southampton for the boat show after a rock and rolling night off of Yarmouth followed by a quiet anchorage run by the National Trust just an hour away. The most exciting part of the jump was passing through the Needles where the water squeezes in between the coast and the Isle of Wight. The water looked like we were going through rapids. We took the sails down and motored through it.

Southampton is big. Huge ships followed us up the channel. We tied Ostinato to the dock and walked what seemed like 20 miles to the show. Ok, maybe it was on 2.5. Yes, it's big, but I don't think it compares with Miami. Saying that, we are still going back for a second day.

Dartmouth Harbour

You have got to be kidding!

Ostinato at Weymouth Harbour

Arriving in Dartmouth

Dartmouth entrance

The Needles off the Isle of White

Tea and Taxes

Aug 29
Ostinato left the Scillies this morning in strong winds and overcast skies. Because of tides, while today wasn't the best wind day, it was the best tide day if Ostinato and Alchemy (friends of Maxie) were going to make the run to Falmouth in daylight. We had big seas and wind between 25 and 35k the entire trip. At times, Ostinato screamed along at 12k thanks to a little help from the current. I heavily medicated to prepare for the trip and miraculously was not seasick.....too busy holding on.

Once in Falmouth harbor we found a spot to anchor hoping to sidestep the pricy mooring balls. First try, we ended up too close to another boat so decided to take another go at it. In pulling up our chain, we discovered it had become tangled with someone else's chain that had been left behind and lost our boat hook getting out of the mess. The 2nd one to take a dive since we left home. Once reanchored, a neighboring boat called over to advise us we would need to move by 6:30 a.m. as we, along with them, we're in the big ship channel. No rest for the weary.

Bright and early, King lassoed a mooring ball on the first try. While quite pleased with ourselves we had already decided it was time to fork over some hard cash for the mooring ball knitting needle thingy guaranteed to whip your lines through the tiny hole on the top of the mooring ball without loss of temper by captain or crew.

The next few days was spent sightseeing and looking for free wifi. The process requires us to have a cup of tea so we can get the wifi name and password to see if it matches any of those accessible from the boat. After 4 days of this King finally bit the bullet and purchased wifi. It was time to chat with the IRS since as good Americans we had procrastinated right up to the final days to file our income taxes (not that our departure gave any time to attend to mundane things like taxes).



Kingsley I

I've included a few pictures below.  The rainbow followed a downpour during our crossing from the Scillies.   Our final night in the anchorage the Tall Ship, Tecla from the Netherlands, anchored next to us. She had just won the Tall Ships race in Ireland. Also, the small Ferry is the "Kingsley II". I finally got a picture of her just before leaving. So here is Kingsley I and below is # II.

Sept 6
Left Falmouth late morning. What little wind there was, was on our nose so we motor sailed the short 20 miles to Fowey (pronounced Foy...beats me). So you ask, just how calm was it? We cranked up the washing machine and did laundry, arriving in Fowey with laundry hanging from the life lines and the sheets. Once in the harbor, King attached Ostinato onto a mooring ball the size of a tractor tire. We are talking a serious mooring ball. Our new super duper mooring ball grabber did its trick and we were off in a flash in search of fish and chips. Fowey's are currently runner up with the best still found at the pier in Baltimore. Lots more yet to sample.

Sept 7
Planned on leaving early this morning but awoke to find fog, requiring us to go back to bed. Today was once again a no wind day. Two more loads of laundry completed between Fowey and Plymouth. After tying up Ostinato to the Mayflower Marina (I would not make something like that up), we hopped the bus into downtown to do a quick tour.  Later that evening had a lovely dinner with Ellie and David who we met a few weeks ago at the marina in Cork. It was nice to reconnect.

Sept 8
Awoke this morning and decided we would be remiss if we didn't check out where King's relatives hopped on the Mayflower to sail to the U. S. (He doesn't talk about this much.) So, back on the bus in search of the "Hoe".... Yes, I kept thinking the same thing. Did I mention it was a double decker bus? My first. Anyway, we found the Mayflower Steps but no list of those aboard as was promised by the Rough Guide to England. The tourist office finally directed us to the side of a building that houses the ice cream shop. There it was, plastered on the outside wall. Not where I would of expected. Maybe they stopped for an ice cream on their way to the boat.
Ostinato was on her way again by 11:00. The sun continued to shine so the boat traffic was like an Atlanta freeway at 5:00 p.m.

No laundry today, we actually sailed a bit. By 4:30 Ostinato was attached to a mooring ball in the tiny picturesque village of Solcombe. There must be a thousand sailboats here and they all have people on them! That's what a few days of sunshine will do for ya.

We have snagged reservations in Southampton for the 14th so we are a boat with a mission. On to the east!

Ki

Netherland tallship, Telca, departs Plymouth

Pendennis Castle at Falmouth

Entering Fowey

Double Rainbow on crossing from the Scillies to Falmouth

Tall Ship Telca anchored next to us in Falmouth

 

The Kingsley II in Falmouth

Do you think we can hit one?

Falmouth Harbour

Fowey anchorage at sunrise